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YC’s Summer Reading

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Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#51

Post by mwiedmann »

ztravis wrote: post #14

I'm consistently surprised to hear people saying positive things about "Ready Player One" - to me it was one of the most hackneyed and silly books I've read in a long time. My review at the time of reading (originally for private consumption only): Terrible modern sci-fi about easter egg MMO quest for game creator’s fortune. Childish plot/dialog, cliches everywhere (e.g. ‘L337 Hax0r Warezhouse’), absolutely atrocious…

My family and I thought the book was fantastic, but one thing I wanted to say is how cool the the author is (Ernest Cline). We went to a book signing at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC. Ernest spoke and gave a presentation for about 90 mins. He was very funny, had a bunch of great stories, and really engaged with all the kids as well. Warren Robinett (the creator of Adventure on the Atari 2600) is friends with Ernest and lives in Chapel Hill so he came to the event as well and spoke a bit. Another great guy. I was just totally blown away by how engaging Ernest was and how much extra effort he put in with the kids in the audience. You really get the feeling that he is super excited about whatever he is doing. His enthusiasm was contagious. Anyway, thought I'd share this. It does make me really root for the guy now.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#52

Post by freyir »

cardigan wrote: post #18
Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

Less than a day for Ready Player One ;( Not focus for me as much as how much fun I'm having

I tried listening to the RP1 audiobook, but the non-stop barrage of 80s & 90s nerd cred references seemed too forced. It may have been Wil Wheaton's delivery, which seemed to emphasize each and every reference. I gave up after a chapter or two. Does this continue throughout the book or does it ease up?

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#53

Post by bbctol »

GradysGhost wrote: post #27
ztravis wrote: post #14

I'm consistently surprised to hear people saying positive things about "Ready Player One" - to me it was one of the most hackneyed and silly books I've read in a long time. My review at the time of reading (originally for private consumption only): Terrible modern sci-fi about easter egg MMO quest for game creator’s fortune. Childish plot/dialog, cliches everywhere (e.g. ‘L337 Hax0r Warezhouse’), absolutely atrocious…

Not to mention the love interest relationship, which is basically, "Love interest doesn't trust protagonist until the story reaches a climax and all of a sudden she's protag's girlfriend despite not having any new reason to be that."

Even worse, "love interest doesn't think she's pretty but only the protagonist is a nice enough guy to see past that." The whole book was a bunch of wish-fulfillment fantasies, but I found the romance the creepiest.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#54

Post by melvinmt »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

I mostly read business management books, but since most of them can be summarized in a couple pages (or a single big blog post, really) I just skim and skip through the hundreds of uninteresting anecdotes and simply stop reading after I grasp the concept of the book. Takes me a couple of hrs in total per book.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#55

Post by billionsfan1 »

elevensies wrote: post #22
pdq wrote: post #20

I'm in the middle of Chaos Monkeys, and am enjoying the author's excellent prose, while walking through the sausage factory of startups. There's also some interesting YC insights, as the author's startup went through it. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Monkeys-Obscene-Fortune-Failure...

I finished this recently and liked it as well. My "policy" is to read every technology company related memoir or corporate history that I can get my hands on, and I found this one more interesting than most as a narrative.

I also like these. just read the facebook and twitter ones. which did you also find and like?

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#56

Post by matthewtoast »

jseliger wrote: post #48

The Magicians is a lovely book; I actually interviewed Grossman when the first one came out, in 2010: https://jakeseliger.com/2010/10/14/an-interview-with-lev-gro... . If you like it, try Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy too. Leviathan Wakes disappoints: its plot and political economy are interesting but on a sentence-by-sentence level one wishes for more. If you haven't read it yet try Peter Watts, Blinds…

I've gotta throw in a counterpoint about Leviathan Wakes. The Expanse is my favorite new space opera series; it's pure entertainment that makes for great summer poolside reading. If they publish 100 of them, I will read them.

That said, Leviathan Wakes is perhaps the weakest in the series. The noir/detective plot feels like a crutch. The authors borrowed some tropes before they found their voice. If you need literary prose - or prefer your sci-fi philosophical - then these maybe aren't for you.

But if you like damn good fun, and like plot-driven novels that hinge on the stubbornness of physics and economics, give The Expanse a chance.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#58

Post by bcbrown »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

This year, I've explicitly been trying to read a book every two weeks, and am at 19 for the year, slightly ahead of pace. Previously, I was reading about 5-10 books a year.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#59

Post by screature2 »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

Books tend to fill my lengthy public transportation commutes. also I'm not opposed to borrowing some sleep time to get in a few more pages.
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